Fading Seasons
by AnimePizzaOverlords
Summary: In the small village of Donau, people live their lives as they have for the last hundred years. The world moves on while the villiage stays in peace away from everything else. But, the appearance of a strange young man threatens that stability...


Somewhere nestled in a mountain valley, hidden safely away from the rest of the world, lies the little village known as Donau. Snugly between a lake, forest, and mountain, the village thrives uninterrupted by the drama and politics plaguing the rest of the world, and the people live knowing the same life they've known for generations. The festivals happen each season as they did the year before, the travelers and trader visit once a week to buy goods, and the tax collector visits every other year. They go ahead with their lives with this, not caring how the world revolves around them, sometimes, even, events playing right outside their doorsteps. But, this is not one of those kind of stories, for the story you will read today, this story follows the normal, everyday life of Donau. Let's watch as their usual, ordinary existences unfold...

* * *

Dreia slowly opened her eyes, yawning and breathing in the familiar smell of the room that had belonged to her since she had moved in with her uncle as a child, and a smell that reminded her of home. She sat up slowly, not wanting to leave the comfort and warmth her bed offered her.  
The only thing that drew her away from her bed was the smell of cooking bacon and eggs that wafted up the stairs to her room from the diner downstairs.

And, of course, her uncle yelling at her to get ready for the day. Opening the drawers of her simple oak dresser, she slipped on her usual outfit of a simple yellow kimono top and a black skirt, with a simple finishing accessory of a yellow hair band that kept her long black hair out of her eyes.  
Dreia quickly descended the flight of stairs that connected the family's personal rooms to the diner below. She smiled to herself as she saw two plates of bacon, eggs, and toast set on one of the many tables in the room.

"Good morning!" Dreia called to her uncle, who could be seen taking freshly baked bread out of the oven, as she sat down at the table. She broke her bread, dipping it into the yolk of her egg.

"Dreia!" A tall redheaded girl with pale grey eyes burst into the diner, waving a spare key in her hand.

"Risa? What's up?" Dreia asked, picking up her plate of hardly touched breakfast, bringing it to sink in the kitchen.

"I found this amazing apple grove in... Where was it? Oh! In Primrose Fields!" Risa beamed, gesturing with her hands. "You should come help me get some of the apples. They'd be great in a tart..."

"Sorry Risa, I have to get to the store for some ingredients Drake was mentioning we needed." She replied, slipping on a large bomber-style jacket.

Risa sighed and shrugged, she had tried. Waving over her shoulder, she ran out of the diner and headed towards the apple grove. Dreia grabbed a bucket that sat over-turned near the door and headed outside, humming a tune that was usually heard playing at local festivals. Setting the bucket underneath the hand-operated water pump and rolling up her sleeves, she began pressing down on the handle, letting the water splash into the bucket before pressing down again. After settling into a rhythm; up, down, up, down, she let herself drift off into her own care-free world.

Dreia was rudely interrupted from her thoughts when water soaked into the toe of her right shoe. She glanced at the bucket after halting her rhythm and saw her blue eyes staring back at her, a little shocked to see the bucket had over-flowed. She tipped the bucket over slightly, just enough for excess water to spill out of the bucket and onto the ground. Carrying the bucket back into the house, she used extra caution not to let any of the water hit the ground, her shoes squeaking against the hardwood flooring of the diner. Hauling the bucket onto the counter, it landed with a loud thud, causing Drake, who was bent over a tray of tart pans to look up.

"Oh, good, water. Thank you." Drake said quickly, his mind still on the matter of that days menu. He pushed his glasses back up the bridge of his nose, after realizing they were nearly falling off, before dipping his fingers into the water and returning to the tedious task of crimping the pie crust on the tarts.

Dreia sighed and rolled her eyes at her uncle's one-task-at-a-time mindset and headed back outside, rolling her sleeves back down as she did so. Her destination, the general store, was only a short walk away and she arrived quickly after a pleasant walk of breathing in the fresh spring air and admiring the wildflowers that grew on the edge of the beaten path. Taking another deep breath, she smoothed her hair down to make sure there weren't too many fly-aways.

Prepping herself, she entered the shop and was greeted with the smells of different items all coming together, like a melting pot. Briefly looking around, she headed up to the counter where a young man sat behind, playing with a yo-yo. He looked over at her and smiled, seeing who it was, before pocketing the toy. She blushed lightly as she admired his sparkling green eyes and his kid-like smiled that she found positively spectacular. In fact, she found everything about him spectacular.

"Hey Dreia. What can I help you with today?" He asked, standing up and stretching.

"Well, I, or we, need..." Dreia began listing off the ingredients, noticing how his light red hair brushed against his forehead as he stood up and keeping track of the number of things she asked for by counting with her fingers. The red-head handed her the ingredients after bagging them in a cloth bag Dreia had produced from the jackets pocket.

"Thanks, Sayan. See you around." Dreia handed him the payment that was required and waved over her shoulder, cradling the bag of ingredients in the crook of the other arm.

The young man, now known as Sayan, pulled out his light blue yo-yo after Dreia left and sat on the stool, just bringing it up, and then down again. Dreia was nice, but not really his type. He couldn't help how he felt about... a certain someone else in the village.

Sighing, his heart heavy, he hopped off the stool that he had been sitting on earlier and grabbed a clipboard from the simple wooden counter. He walked over to the shelf and began taking inventory of the store's stock. Dreia helped keep them in business, after all, she stopped in almost every other day asking for almost the exact same thing. He just didn't understand how someone could go through as much flour, eggs, sugar, and other ingredients as they did. Even if they ran a diner. Shrugging it off, he continued with the stock until he was half-way done. He'd leave the rest for Lyra. After all, her shift was coming up, and he hadn't seen her leave the shop yet, which meant she _would _work today and she couldn't just blow it off, as per usual.

He laughed softly to himself and noticed something in the back of the store. Walking to the back, he noticed it was a little pin in the shape of... He couldn't really tell. Was it a green apple? Or perhaps a piece of grass? Whatever it was, he pocketed it after checking the inventory list to make sure a pin wasn't listed in stock. Of course, there wasn't. Walking back over to the counter, he sat down and began tinkering with it, trying to figure out exactly what it was.

"Emerald... Green apple? Grass?" Sayan asked himself quietly. Shrugging, he slipped it into his pocket next to the yo-yo and checked his watch, and seeing his shift had ended, muttered, "You can't escape me, Lyra."

He grinned, heading up the stairs that led up to the house part of the building.

After a few moments, he stood next to her door, deciding if he should just burst in or knock. Knocking would be more polite, but...

"Hello Lyra!" He yelled, throwing open the door to her small bedroom. Sayan blinked in surprise. She wasn't there. He threw her light yellow bedspread off the bed, not noticing something odd about the bed. He checked behind the door, under the bed, finding an unpleasant surprise of dirty laundry. Sayan checked everywhere in that little room. Frowning in frustration, he did a look-over on the room once again and noticed the answer staring him in the face. The window in her room that faced the forest was open and a make-shift rope made out of, what else? Bedsheets. He cursed quietly and pulled the rope back in, shutting the window afterwards. Looked like he was doing a double-shift, like usual. He chuckled lightly and headed downstairs to man the shop.

* * *

"Hyah!" A red-headed girl with short spiky hair and inquisitive green eyes knocked aside an Orc Archer in the Primrose Field clearing. She felt blood hit her cheek as she spun around, impaling another Orc with her silver and gold lance, appropriately named Lancelot. After dealing with the few Orcs that had been stupid enough to attack, she charged at the gate and slammed her lance down into it. There was a flash of light, and the clearing was peaceful once again.

"Heh, piece of cake." Lyra said confidently, smirking as she flopped onto the ground, setting her lance next to her head before folding her hands under her head in a make-shift pillow as she stared up at the clear blue sky.

It was a perfect spring day, no work, all play. She giggled as she noticed a cloud in the shape of a rabbit roll by. Followed by a... face? Grey eyes looked down at Lyra as long hair brushed her cheek.

"Oh, I thought you were asleep!" Risa laughed, standing up straight again and staring at the sky.

"D-don't sneak up on people, Risa!" Lyra said, taking a deep breath and recovering from the slight shock. Risa just grinned before taking a bite out of an apple she held in her hand.

"Shouldn't just lay around, and slacking off, in my opinion." Risa answered a few moments later.

"And what's in there?" Lyra asked, gesturing to Risa's backpack that was bulging and threatened to overflow.

"Apples!" Risa replied, taking another bite.

Lyra rolled her eyes and stood up, dusting herself off afterwards. She decided she'd rather take her shift then hang out with this airhead. She gave a half-hearted wave as she walked away, brandishing her lance once again as she headed into town.

Risa stared after Lyra as the red-head left. Shrugging, she walked over to a tree and reached up blindly, not caring what she touched, but preferring an apple. She triumphantly grabbed something and tugged on it, pulling it off the branch. Expecting an apple, she was disappointed when she saw an emerald.

"Huh? What's this doing up there?" She asked, frowning in frustration. She noticed a string that had snapped, attached to the emerald. "That must've been what held it on!" Risa concluded, giggling and slipping it into her pocket.

Not finding anything else in the tree, she grabbed her spear, Poseidon, a three pronged spear, which was strapped onto her back, and headed back to town, maybe she'd ask Drake to make her an apple tart. After exiting the dungeon, she ran into a fellow elf, one with sandy blond hair and black eyes. Literally.

"Oh!" Risa exclaimed, picking herself up from the ground and seeing who she had run into. "Hello Sammy."

"How many times do I have to tell you, Risa. My name's Sam. If I was to be called Sammy, I would've been named Sammy." Sam scolded, frowning and accepting the hand Risa had offered him. He glanced at his book and a defeated look briefly passed over his face as he noticed the dirt in the pages and on the cover.

"Well, I wouldn't have run into you if hadn't been reading." Lyra replied, giggling.

"You would have noticed I was reading if your head wasn't in the clouds all the time." Sam retorted, glaring at her. He turned his back on her, leaving her to continue on to her destination, while he continued onto the library.

He stopped and looked up at the grand building, one of the oldest buildings in Donau village. Its main exterior was brick while it had marble columns in front of two thick wooden doors. Same entered and looked around at the familiar scene, breathing in the comforting smell of old books. Setting his book down the book he had been carrying and began looking through a huge, dusty book that held the information on every title in the library. Seeing the one he wanted he smiled and climbed onto a ladder, pushing off and sliding down the row of bookcases. Stopping suddenly, he carefully picked out his desired book, something on the subject of the mastery of magic, and began to descend.  
Unfortunately for him, his foot caught on the long, black cloak he wore, sending him tumbling down the ladder. Groaning, he sat up after landing with a loud thud on the marble flooring. In order of his priorities, he checked to make sure the book was alright before checking that he was fine. He flinched as he tried to move his arm. He carefully stood up, making sure not to use his left arm. He was about to head to the clinic when he slipped and fell, landing hard on his side. Seeing what he had landed on, he glared at the emerald, wondering where that had come from, and he didn't hear the soft sound of a young girl giggling.

Standing back up, he picked up the emerald and placed it on the shelf of a bookcase. Sighing, he headed outside, still carrying the book with his good arm, and walking to the clinic. Moments later, he arrived at the local doctor. He stood up straighter and knocked on the door. An elderly woman in white answered.

"Sam," she said quietly, the way she always talked. "This is a place of business. You can just come in."

"I'm afraid I can't, Chiryo. You see, I'm afraid I may have broken my left arm, or at the very least bruised the bone."

"The door works perfectly well with a right arm," the healer commented as she allowed the young elf in. In response he showed her the book he held in that hand, and she made a small grunt of understanding.

"I'll have Midori attend to you in a moment."

"Midori?" Sam asked in bewilderment. "Why should I wait for the aid of that... that... _nurse_... when there's a perfectly able-bodied doctor standing right in front of me."

"Aye, but a bone, bruised or shattered, is not the most complicated treatment, and our 'nurse' must start somewhere," Chiryo sighed while she situated her one and only patient in a chair, giving him a pillow to rest his arm on. "You must admit, nobody'd prefer she didn't start getting training until after I'm cold in the ground."

"Chiryo! Don't talk about those things. Bad luck." The elf said the words unemotionally as he dove into his book, though he did mean it with fondness. "And if a bone treatment is as simple as you say, would it not be faster to get it over with now than to wait for your granddaughter to... grace us with her presence?" He managed to say the last part with laden sarcasm.

"In my experience, lad, leaving a clinic to a full-fledged doctor is much smarter than leaving it to a nurse still in training," the woman said as she rang a bell on the wall. Without much more than a muffled grunt, the old healer abandoned the elf to his fate with inexperience.

Within moments, a young woman entered the room to take her grandmother's place. The years between the two were vast, and it could only be assumed that the girl with twisty, jangly chocolate hair and plain spring green gingham dress echoed the youth of her elder. She stared at the elf through her glossy, mint-and-hollyhock spheres.

"Well, what have we got here?" she asked sweetly as she retrieved some gauze from a counter in the room. "I heard about an injury?"

"I took a fall in the library," Sam responded simply, somewhat more enthralled by the theory of alchemic worth and exchange than his own well being.

"Alright!" the girl chirped excitedly. "Shirt off, let's see the damage."

Sam glared at the girl. "It's my arm. No need for that," he explained icily while gingerly rolling up his sleeve.

"Let's take a look... can you still move your arm? Yup... does this hur- sorry! And thi... Ah! Sorry! Alright, seems like you hurt the muscle more than the bone, so just let it rest up for a day or two and you should be fine. I can give you some medicine for pain, if you want."

"That won't be necessary," the librarian muttered, annoyed, as he rose to leave.

"At least let me compress the wound. It'll heal faster," she offered, smiling in a Siren manner.

"I'll have you know, I'm quite capable of taking care of myself. If all it needs is rest, I can give it that without your poorly conducted attempts at medical practitioning. Good day."

Midori shrugged as the bookworm left, struggling with the door on his way out. If he didn't want to listen to doctor's advice, that was his business. Who was she to not let him learn his lessons the hard way?

* * *

The beast rose before him – a horrid creature of existence and demise. It arched its back in a catlike manner, extending its serpentine neck to allow itself to howl with the fury of ten thousand Hells. It stood taller than any tree in the forest, firmer than any boulder on the mountain; a faint shaking of its russet scales could be heard as it approached. Koji-jima could smell her prey was close, but she could not see it yet. Soon; soon enough indeed. The prey would pay.

The warrior drew his sword; a beautiful, silver-adamantine blade, with a grip of gale leather and a tempest stone set in the hilt. He felt stronger just holding the weapon; he grinned as the gusts and bursts of the wind began to course through his veins, as the power of every storm on the planet became his. A dragon was no easy foe, but neither was the young soldier. The dark-haired swordsman readied himself, and charged at the monster.

Koji-jima recoiled as the man leapt onto her back from behind, making a slash at the base of her neck. She reeled her head around to snap at the threat, but found moving her neck much was now excruciatingly painful. The warrior raised his sword to make a second stab in a vital spot, when the dragon made an odd move – she rolled over. It was only luck he fell to the side and wasn't crushed by the dragon's weight, but that meant he would now be forced to fight her face-to-face. He swore underneath his breath.

The dragon returned to her feet quickly, realizing quickly her prey did not die. She turned to face the young dragon-slayer, bearing her fangs, each as long and sharp as his sword. Not giving her the opportunity, the warrior lunged forward again, hoping to catch her off-guard with such reckless tactics, but, alas, he was batted away into a tree with a swish of her paw. He felt his left shoulder crack from the force, the new pain leaving him stunned for a second. He looked up, and rolled out of the way just in time as the beast's whip-like tail splintered the tree where he had lain only a second earlier.

Desperate, he spun and launched his sword at the dragon, successfully impaling her through the neck. Only, this left her blinded with rage – she let out a harsh bellow, and flew at her foe, pain no longer a feeling. He narrowly avoided being snatched in her claws, the force of air around her pushing him underneath. Simply acting, he latched onto her tail, and began to climb onto her back. Koji-jima was even more infuriated at this – so, she began to climb higher and higher into the air, flying past the mountains of the valley. The warrior felt himself getting woozy at the altitude – he had little time left before he would lose consciousness. Scrambling as quickly as he could, he made his way up the dragon's back. He clambered up her neck, and retrieved his still-stuck sword, releasing a flow of thick, grey fluid. Koji-jima roared again, this time cut short as the warrior ran her head through.

The two began to fall instantly as Koji-jima was no longer flying. They fell past the clouds, and the man could just barely make out a splotch of green below, lining a large patch of blue. He tried to grip the dragon's body for stability, but it began to crumble into dust in his arms. The dirt of decay sprayed into his face, his lungs, and his sight became nothing more than fuzzy blobs of muted color. He became vaguely aware he had dropped his sword, it was falling to be lost from him forever, and that the splotch of blue was becoming much larger.  
He then remembered only nothingness.

* * *

Ryoshi was thoroughly enjoying the sunset fishing. He removed the wide-brimmed straw cap from his head only long enough to wipe his brow, and proceeded to undo the bottom to buttons on his shirt to let some more air in.

The lanky kid was rather pleased with the growing number of fish in his old leather rucksack - he couldn't remember the last time the fish were biting so well at this evening hour. It didn't take him long to decide, the fish were doing all the work tonight, so he set onto the ground and took a more relaxed posture he could keep for hours. Within moments, he was gazing lazily onto the lake waters.  
The fisherman had very nearly drifted off before something disturbed his serenity. Sounded like a large splash. The Great Fish? Could it be the Great Fish? He jolted up in a pure adrenalin rush, scanning the water for any signs of Donau's own legend. His eyes caught something out in the surf... driftwood?

"Good Goddess, it's a man!"

**

* * *

**

Eh, so we lied in the opening paragraph about how nothing unusual was going to happen in this village. But, did you guys honestly buy that load of buffamoo?

**So this is the first chapter of the first story AnimeViolinist and pepperpizzapal are writing together, and we actually have some interesting places to take this. But you'll just have to read and see.**  
**Thanks a ton for reading this, and hopefully we've managed to catch your interesting enough you'll stick with this story and (we hopeFa against hope here), that we entertain you.**  
**Thanks so much for your time, really :D**  
**~PPP**


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